Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Ol' J.P. Getty wanted his Museum to be free, & it is. Uh, save for the parking fee, which probably wasn't part of his bequest. So here's a surprise:

That's an impressive number: $6.4 million in parking revenue, more than the annual income of many, many non-profits in Los Angeles. For those who are chagrined by the unofficial admission fee, the plot thickens when they look deeper into the 990 forms. They show the parking income in tax year 2009 was just $4,707,447. That year the Getty bumped the parking charge up to $15, saying it was necessary to keep the museum financially healthy. About 200 positions were also eliminated. By 2011, the last year for which the Getty has filed, the parking revenue had swelled to $6.4 million. So the parking fee hike, and any increase in visits, brought in an extra $1,774,200 a year.

Those same 990 forms also show that between 2009 and last year, the amount paid in compensation to officers, directors and trustees also swelled — from $2,301,872 (in '09) to $4,062,574 (in '11.) That's a net increase in high-level salaries of $1,760,702 for the year.

Using what Bill Clinton calls arithmetic, that suggests all but $16,502 of the increased parking revenues went for compensation to the highest officers at the Getty. Nice to know, if you're just an art lover who wants to visit one of the richest-endowed museums in the world.

Do as we do, tell those fuckers to go to hell by taking the bus to their temple of greed. Honestly, we only go for the grounds & view; few of the exhibitions are worth the drive or the parking fee.

Any one else experiencing comments not posting at that site where the lib com-symp academics/union thugs use half their electrons discussing sports in a vain attempt to hide their America-hating sissitude from real Americans?

UPDATE: Never mind! Coulda been our cache, as we had a similar problem at S,N! until we cleared the thing.

The other two deceased were identified on Twitter and by friends, many of whom were among the estimated 80 people who gathered Sunday outside Reno's Pizzeria where a makeshift memorial had been set up. That gathering ultimately had to be broken up by the Los Angeles Police Department.

Up at the crack of 1000. Accomplished by 1500:
Cups of coffee. Sweating. Finished a pack of butts. Read crap on the Internet, wasted an hr. looking for the "Song of The Wk." Listened to the DVR of the Stephanie Miller show (No good; she's on vacation this wk.) while wading through Wonkette threads. Breakfast (just before 1500): Baked 2/3 lb. of frozen Swedish (style) meatballs & et 'em.

Things picked up considerably post-1500. We put on pants & a shirt, went out for butts & Dr Pepper (too hot & humid for un-iced coffee as caffeine & sugar delivery). Checked mail (nothing) returned to the bunker, took our clothes off & typed this while smoking & drinking Dr Pepper. May be nap time.

In my public school 40 years ago, teachers didn’t lay their hands on students for bad behavior. They sent them to the principal’s office. But in today’s often overcrowded and underfunded schools, where one in eight students receive help for special learning needs, the use of physical restraints and seclusion rooms has become a common way to maintain order.

It’s a dangerous development, as I know from my daughter’s experience. At the age of 5, she was kept in a seclusion room for up to an hour at a time over the course of three months, until we discovered what was happening. The trauma was severe.

According to national Department of Education data, most of the nearly 40,000 students who were restrained or isolated in seclusion rooms during the 2009-10 school year had learning, behavioral, physical or developmental needs, even though students with those issues represented just 12 percent of the student population. African-American and Hispanic students were also disproportionately isolated or restrained.

It is truly a wonder & amazement that there is a single parent, teacher or school administrator still breathing in this fascist shit-hole of a nation.

The ultimate fault is always the parental units, however fucked-up & fascist the schools to which they send their children. What psychological trauma did Bill Lichtenstein impose on his daughter that she would “get fidgety and restless when she is unsure as to what is expected of her"? A five-yr. old who thinks she should be performing & conforming to the desires & expectations of others 24/7? That's just wonderful, innit?*

There's no age limit/requirement in the Second Amendment, & if anyone in this nation of bullies & enforcers needs weapons for defense against the fascism of physical superiority it is those under 18. Note well that (No surprise here.) those of darker skin hues get more of it.

Guns to the youth to free them from restraints & solitary confinement!*No comments there. Maybe himself-a-bully Bill Lichtenstein was aware people might wonder why his daughter can't handle freedom/thinks she should be under someone's thumb at all times. No parent is innocent, are they?

Saturday, September 8, 2012

It’s called “depressive realism.” Sharot writes, “If you ask mildly depressed individuals what they expect in the upcoming month, they will give you a pretty accurate account. If you ask them about their longevity or the likelihood of having a certain illness, they will give you correct estimations.”

The small earthquakes that hit Beverly Hills this week struck at the intersection of two potentially dangerous faults that run through the heart of urban Los Angeles County. Both faults could trigger a powerful magnitude 7 quake.

U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Doug Given said the quakes occurred near the junction of the Santa Monica fault, which runs underneath Santa Monica Boulevard and near Pacific Palisades, Westwood, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, and the Newport-Inglewood fault (which, despite its name, terminates north of Inglewood, meeting the Santa Monica fault in a T-shaped intersection).

The earthquakes that hit this week — a 3.2 on Monday, centered near Doheny Drive and Wilshire Boulevard, and a 3.4 after midnight Friday, centered near Wilshire Boulevard and Beverly Drive — were relatively shallow. "As a result, they were strongly felt," Given said.

Both faults are quite long, meaning they are capable of producing a destructive quake. Because they run underneath the Westside and western L.A. County — heavily populated areas — there is "significant population at risk because of them," Given said.

The Newport-Inglewood fault, beginning just off the Orange County coast and extending 50 miles northwest through Long Beach, Inglewood and into West Los Angeles, has been the subject of dire quake scenarios because it runs directly under some of the most densely populated areas of Southern California.

Movement along the southern part of that fault caused the 1933 Long Beach quake, a 6.3 temblor centered off Newport Beach that killed 115 people, mainly in Long Beach and Compton. That was the second-largest number of fatalities in a California temblor in recorded history. Damage to school buildings caused by that quake led to major steps toward earthquake-resistant construction in the state.

A study by the Division of Mines and Geology found that a quake along the Newport-Inglewood fault could cause blockage of the Hollywood Freeway at the overcrossings for Hollywood and Sunset boulevards, reduction of the capacity of Los Angeles International Airport to 30% for two days, the indefinite loss of 34% of all hospital beds in Los Angeles and Orange counties, the shutdown of five power plants for three days and impediments in water supplies.

A scenario simulating a 6.6 earthquake on the Santa Monica fault estimated that 54,000 buildings could be damaged and 85 would be damaged beyond repair. Under the scenario, a quake there could kill as many as 30 people and force the hospitalization of more than 200 people.

In 2009, a 4.7 earthquake centered near Inglewood shattered some windows and caused ceiling tiles to fall in a movie theater.

We can not wait for one or both of these faults to go. ++schadenfreude!

A man was arrested after a two-hour standoff with police Thursday night for firing a gun from his Koreatown apartment at a man on the street, police said.

The suspect, whose name was not immediately released, was booked on an attempted-murder charge after leaving his apartment on the 200 block of South Normandie Avenue, LAPD Sgt. Dominic Counts said.

Earlier in the evening, the man had argued from his second-floor apartment with another man who stood on the street in front of the apartment complex, Counts said. The suspect then allegedly fired a shot at the man on the street.

Police arrived and surrounded the building, and attempted to contact the alleged shooter in his apartment. Eventually, after a standoff lasting more than two hours, he left the apartment and was arrested, Counts said.

Tiny earthquake a few mins. ago, in Beverly Hills. Felt something, a crawl on the tee vee confirmed it.

Also, guy alleged to have been shooting from a balcony (A police ossifer told us, it's gotta be true.) about a block away from our location an hr. ago. Choppers all over, fire engines, one w/ its ladder extended (Looking for the "sniper?") at the nearby intersection, which was closed.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

The cops were very professional, listened to both sides (though we were cuffed momentarily while they sorted it out), and let us go in opposite directions after we both declined to press charges. I owe thanks to the Martinez family, who were cooking food in their yard and told the police what had happened.

Oh, maybe not, but one never knows. We do have it in us. (It often tries to get out.) And we sure as fucking hell would have pressed charges. Seriously, someone knocks us down, then kicks dirt & rocks on us & then actually kicks us, a black eye would be the least of his worries. Blood would be spilled, & not ours.

And what's the deal w/ the fucking police showing up before justice can be administered? Who squealed?

Last: "Cooking food?" Really? They were cooking food? As opposed to newspapers, or a sidewalk?

Burning on the inside sounds like sex to me*, and that sound is amplified when it's coming out of Bill Clinton's mouth. Clinton's story is permeated with hidden — but not hidden enough! — sexual matters. So if Bill Clinton says that Barack Obama is outwardly cool but he burns on the inside for America, I'm getting the message that Obama is behaving like a gentleman but he really wants to screw us. (And obviously, Obama-haters will say he's been screwing us for 4 years.)

A brace of religious ragheads (And doesn't that say everything about religion, that, for no reason at all other than tribalizing these ninnies have to wrap a towel around their head before they go out in public?) whine about hate crimes.

Here's a clue: Religion is a choice (Unless the religious person is so fucking brain-dead that s/he was born into a religious culture & was unable to think his/her way out of the net of deception & indoctrination.) not a condition of birth. The foolish & ignorant deserve to be hated, whether they were born that way or chose to shut off their mental faculties. No one likes Scientologists, Mormons & their ilk (NB: The Sikh "religion" is another obviously bogus Mormon-style invention.) why should we respect any of this crap? Let's start beating some fucking sense into these cretins. At least tax the fucking hell out of their scams & cons.

And get a fucking shave & wash your hair once in a while you hippie whiners.

Here is Breitbarter Joel B. Pollak checking the facts on Mrs. Obama's speech. Fact-checking is very popular of late, as we're sure Mr. Pollak has noticed, but he hasn't yet grasped the entire concept. To him, it's a fact that if you got a job, bought a house or took a vacation, ever, you have not struggled & all prior wants, needs & shortages just don't matter. Even worse fact: Negroes w/ expensive tastes. How dare they?

They had expensive tastes, reflected in the $277,500 two-bedroom condo they bought in 1993--a high price even by today’s standards. Several years later, they moved into their $1.65 million mansion in Hyde Park--with the help of fraudster Tony Rezko. Barack often told a story of hardship on the campaign trail in 2008 about having his credit card declined--once. The fact that he thought this counted as real hardship speaks volumes.

As her husband moved onto the national political stage, Michelle Obama began to enjoy a lavish lifestyle at taxpayer expense, directly and indirectly. When Barack Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate, he obtained a $1 million earmark for the University of Chicago Hospital--and his wife’s salary as Vice President for Community Affairs jumped from $121,910 to $316,962. Her job: pushing poor, uninsured patients to other hospitals.

As First Lady, Michelle Obama has lived high on the hog while the rest of the country has suffered through an extraordinary recession. In 2010, she and her entourage decamped to Spain for a lavish vacation. That summer, the Obamas encouraged Americans to visit the Gulf coast after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which threatened tourism in the region. They promptly jetted off to Maine for their own summer holiday.

This summer, the Obamas skipped their usual summer trip to the wealthy playground of Martha’s Vineyard--months after Michelle and her daughters had enjoyed an expensive winter skiing trip in Aspen. And, of course, there are the frequent pilgrimages to Hawaii, Some of their family’s comfort, of course, comes from private income, principally Barack Obama’s book sales--yet even that wealth is a spin-off of Obama’s political career.

Yup, precisely like being the spawn of millionaire businessmen living on the stock their millionaire parents gave them. No doubt Michelle Robinson got through Harvard Law on her father's U.S. Post Office pension.

If, as the Democrats eagerly [sic] pointing out, Mitt Romney enjoyed the privilege of private wealth, the Obamas have enjoyed privilege funded by public money and public life. And until entering the national spotlight, they gave little to charity, contributing instead to a church that preached racial grievance. “[T]ruth matters,” Michelle Obama told the nation last night. That, too, is a lie--because so far, she has evaded it without consequence.

"Racial grievance." Projection, thy name is Pollak. The Romneys, of course, give their charitable donations to a cult that was openly racist until 1978.

Because we love ourself as much (if not more) than we ♥ America, we've been watching baseball rather than the DNC; peeks at the Internet indicate all goes well & Mrs. Obama's speech was well received by the liberally biased.

So we wonder how it will be spun (Spinned?) by the FLOTUS-haters. Yes, we've an idea or two of the direction it could take; the real question is how far & low they will go when there's nothing objectionable for them to whine about.

The big aesthetic/socio-cultural subtext of the entire competition being how audible the dog-whistles will become if, as November approaches, the Magic 8 Ball® of polling bullshit & bullshit hunches says "signs point to yes" for the incumbent's chances & Rymney/Roan's team of incompetent hacks begins feeling as if they're on board the Straight Talk Express c. 2008 w/ Sarah Palin at the wheel & babbling non-stop.(Shouldn't there be a "prediction market" [that taps the wisdom of crowds, maybe] for the first straight-up non-euphemistic un-coded [Not necessarily "nigger."] reference by a candidate or party official?)

"Republican voters, if you ask them about my particular policy positions, often agree with me. So there's a difference between Republicans in Washington and Republican and Republican-leaning voters around the country. I think that after this election, we'll be in a position to once again reach out to Republicans and say that the American people have rendered a judgment, and the positions we're taking are well within what used to be considered bipartisan centrist approaches."

-- President Obama, in an interview with Parade, on how he'll be able to work with Republicans after the election.

Mostly because Axis combine SONY/BMG* removed an earlier upload.The present day YouTuber refuses to die.*Might have been home-grown fascists UMG (Universal Music Group). You can see the possibility for confusion there.

Where some candidates choose evocative names—President Obama sees himself as a "Renegade," while George W. Bush was a "Trailblazer." Ryan got to choose his favorite hobby. The man is a skilled archer, a hunter of deer and animal, and an aficionado of the sport.

Late as of 2007, that is. It would be extremely irresponsible not to speculate what allowed Dennis Dunn to marry his "beloved bride" 18 yrs. before lateness hit Mrs. Dunn Mark I.

EVEN MORE BONUS (Men's Rights Division): Note that Dunn "fathered two sons." (++manly.) Not even "w/ Jennifer Blackburn Dunn." He just straight up sired them. One of whom is named "Reagan."

Christ, what a collection of assholes.Editor's Note: Isn't the Internet grand? Almost fifty yrs. later we can abuse a shithead teacher (In all fairness, not a bad French teacher for a Yank, & we did well in his classes, fortunately for our permanent record.) w/ his own words. Fuck you, Dennis.

Or so it is alleged. We'll look later. Hell, haven't even seen this more than once.Text pile-on as well, for the less visually & aurally sensitive.

With his vested interest in denying the persistence of racism in American life, D’Souza seems unwilling to address the ways that his own racial and national background have made him useful to the right. Would he have been hired as a Reagan White House aide at age 27, and gone on to a stellar and lavishly remunerated career with right-wing think tanks, publishing houses and academic institutions, if he had been a young conservative from Indiana rather than India?

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Moon, self-proclaimed messiah who turned his Unification Church into a worldwide religious movement and befriended North Korean leaders as well as U.S. presidents, died on Monday, September 3, 2012, at a church-owned hospital near his home in Gapyeong, northeast of Seoul. He was 92.

We give him three days or any messiah claims are rendered null & void.

In this Aug. 25, 1992 file photo, Unification Church founder Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his wife wave their hands to some 40,000 believers and supporters during a wedding ceremony at Seoul's Olympic Stadium in Seoul, South Korea.

Moon, born in a town that is now in North Korea, founded his religious movement in Seoul in 1954 after surviving the Korean War. He preached new interpretations of lessons from the Bible.

The church gained fame, and notoriety, in the 1970s and '80s for holding mass weddings of thousands of followers, often from different countries, whom Moon matched up in a bid to build a multicultural religious world. AP Photo/Ahn Young-Joon

Christ, what an asshole.

Perhaps his descendants, heirs &/or successors won't be wasting any more moolah on The Wash. Times.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Entirely bogus retroactive/pre-dated post (1810PDT 2 September 2012) because we didn't have the good sense to schedule one for Saturday 1 September 2012, & there was no wi-fi in room 7 at the Malibu Riviera ("Bates") Motel.

Our reaction: Astral Weeks? Who'd want to hear what it sounded like? Another tortured singer-songwriter complaining mid-tempo. We prefer complaints about existential agony from Americans like Bangs, because we can understand them.

“We’re not your crusty old white guy party anymore,” boasted Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.), who at 31 is at the tail end of the Reagan generation.

Nope. Just dumb-ass middle-aged honkies.

Now, students, comparing Rep. Schock to his crusty buddies Jim Hoft, the late Breitbart & the InstaPundit, why might we imagine young Aaron to have a Napoleonic complex? And how might he deal therew/?

That's one way to compensate. (Dr. Freud, may I speak w/ you a moment?) Fit, sexy Paul Ryan better watch it. There's always someone younger & even buffer on the prowl for a sugar-daddyvice-presidential slot/position as heir to the manliness that is the Republican party.

Follow straight to Hell!

SPREADING OURSELF THICKLYOVER THE INTERNET

Book of Trolls 1.1, "Thou Shalt Troll"
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I find any public discussion of religion vulgar. As I see it: everyone has to shit. We all know this. Every person you shake hands with has (one trusts) wipe...

E-Z 4 U

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